SACRAMENTO—Co-chairs Assemblymembers Jim Wood, DDS (D-Healdsburg), and Joaquin Arambula, MD (D-Fresno), announce the release of the committee’s report, including recommendations, following a series of hearings of the Select Committee on Health Care Delivery Systems and Universal Coverage that began last October.

“I know that people in our state and around the country are hurting and have anxiety about their health care,” said Wood. “The select committee was created to dig deep into the policy of what would be needed to provide a roadmap to universal health care. The recommendations you find in this report can be used to guide policy makers as we look at ways to provide health care for all Californians. Although we expect these recommendations to have a significant influence on legislation, we may see other proposals as well.”

The report, authored by a team of academics from the University of California San Francisco and San Diego who attended all the hearings, can be found on the select committee’s website, http://healthcare.assembly.ca.gov/reports.

“The hearings our committee held have provided us with a comprehensive understanding of California’s health care delivery system and highlighted the challenges we face in establishing a universal health care system,” said Arambula. “The report outlines some options for us to consider that will help increase access and affordability. This will allow us to make some immediate changes to expand coverage while we pursue long-term solutions.”

“Every member of this committee remained fully engaged during the more than 30 hours of presentations and testimony,” said Wood. “We asked tough questions and listened to the successes, challenges, and sometimes failures, of others who have tackled this very complex issue. We are proud of our work and it will guide us as we expand health care coverage and move toward a universal system of care.”

The select committee was created in March by Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, with Wood and Arambula as co-chairs. Other committee members appointed include Assemblymembers Autumn Burke (D-Inglewood), David Chiu (D-San Francisco), Laura Friedman (D-Glendale), Tom Lackey (R-Palmdale) and Marie Waldron (R-Escondido).